June 6, 1907] 



NATURE 



129 



was found that in one case the larva had swallowed 

 a smaller one, and that the others had partially 

 digested their younger fellows. Further details of 

 this habit are promised. 



The papers on Polychaets are of interest, chiefly as 

 affording further confirmation of the prevalence of 

 European forms, and even of their parasites, in South 

 .African waters. I lie luminous Chsetopterus, for ex- 

 ample, that occurs on the Devonshire coast ana 

 among the Channel Islands, is found between tide- 

 marks in False Bav and .Simon's Bay at the Cape. 

 Many of our commonest littoral annelids are found 

 under similar conditions on the shores of these bavs. 

 Fifteen out of the thirty-eight species here described 

 are British, and the majority of the remainder are 

 closely allied replacing forms. Where the agreement 

 is so close it is rather curious to note that no mention 

 is made of the presence of the common lugworm of 

 of its allies. 



Prof. Hickson's paper on the .-Mcyonaria is a con- 



'^a I 



Fig. 2.—Platopkrys dnnorpiiu^, n. -p. Upper figure, male ; lower, female. 

 From "Marme Investigations in South Africa." 



tinuation of his previous work on this branch of the 

 Cape fauna. It contains, amongst other matter, de- 

 scriptions of a new family, two new genera, and four 

 new species. The new family, Malacogorgiidae, is 

 remarkable as comprising Gorgonians, or sea-fans, 

 without any calcareous structures. Of more general 

 interest is the combination of local and of widely 

 diffused corals that occur in the Cape waters. .^ii 

 least six peculiar Cape species, belonging to four 

 genera, are now known, one of which, Alcyonium 

 purpiirt'um, is impregnated by a soluble purple pig- 

 ment which deserves fuller investigation. On the 

 other hand, the affinities of the members of the group 

 in this region with .\tlantic, Indian, and even 

 Antarctic Alcyonaria are clearly indicated. U'e may 

 expect a further investigation of these difficult 

 problems of distribution from the distinguished author 

 of this work. 



The remaining papers can onlv be briefly sum- 



NO. 1962, VOL. 76] 



marised. Mr. Stanley Gardiner's work on corals is 

 of that high standard to which his previous papers 

 have accustomed us. It is based on a large series of 

 comparisons, and is executed in the most careful and 

 thoughtful manner, both as regards the skeletal and 

 malacological characters. Prof. Jeffrey Bell reports 

 the discoverv of the echinid Palaeolampas in a living 

 state. 



The plankton investigations by Cleve is a most 

 useful summary of the distribution of the Copepoda 

 found in South African seas, and also gives the per- 

 centage of this fauna that extends northwards, the 

 result showing that in Mediterranean waters the per- 

 centage reaches more than 70, thus supporting the 

 view enunciated by Cleve that the waters of the 

 north temperate .Atlantic " originate not from the 

 Gulf Stream, but from the Benguela current, which 

 is supposed to pass as an under-current below the 

 waters of the Tropical .Atlantic." Finally, a word 

 of praise must be added for the forty-five excellent 

 plates that adorn this work. 



REFORM IX RVRAL EDUCATION. 

 'T'HE Gloucester conference on rural education in 

 •'■ IQ04 directed public attention to the need for 

 adapting rural education to rural requirements. 

 Several countv education authorities have since insti- 

 tuted inquiries into the subject, chambers of agricul- 

 ture have passed resolutions, and now the County 

 Councils .Association, through its Rural Education 

 Sub-committee, has published a " Memorandum as 

 to certain subjects suitable for the upper standards of 

 elementary schools, and for evening schools in rural 

 districts." This memorandum is worthy of careful 

 examination. The case for reform may first be briefly 

 stated. 



It is a disturbing thought that during the past half- 

 centurv scientific method has largely disappeared from 

 rural elementarv education. The child, whose educa- 

 tion chieflv consisted in learning from what he saw 

 and did iii the field, sheepfold and farmstead, grew 

 into a man who, though his range of view was 

 limited, possessed a remarkable store of accurate first- 

 hand knowledge upon those things which concerned 

 his work in life. With the introduction of a system 

 of compulsorv schooling, in which knowledge was 

 principallv g.-nined from" the lips of the teacher, the 

 scientific method of basing knowledge on individual 

 experience largelv disappeared. Now faculties, while 

 easilv developed in children, as easily become atrophied 

 through disuse, and, under the present system, it is 

 too often the case that lads as they leave school have 

 neither the power of intellieent observation which is 

 e.;sentinl to success in rural industry, nor have they 

 acquired an interest in country things. In the absence 

 of such interests, the amusements of a town prove an 

 irresistible attraction, .-nd this, it is believed, has been 

 one of the factors in bringing about rural depopula- 

 tion and the scarcitv of skilled men on the farm-, 

 while at the .same time we meet in every London 

 street with able-bodied out-of-works. 



In the memorandum of the County Councils .As- 

 sociation, nothing is said about less schooling, but the 

 guiding principle in all the subjects of the curriculum 

 is to be to ;■-•/ surrouncl!n_i;s teach, and thus to put 

 back scientific method into rural education. Geo- 

 graphy and historv are to be based on the physical 

 features of, or the events associated with, the neigh- 

 bourhood. In arithmetic, out-of-door measurement of 

 land, crops, stacks, and cisterns is to be introduced. 

 School-gardening is to be regarded not merely as 

 instruction in the operations of gardening, but as a 

 study of the growth of crops in relation to the soil. 



